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Trailer for HBO's "Chernobyl" miniseries, update: multiple very positive reviews


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Someone cut together episodes 5 and 1 and placed them in chronological order, if anyone is interested in seeing the disaster play out that way. 

 

 

I love how the show started as a horror show, then turned into basically a disaster movie, and then a war story, and finally a murder mystery. Craig Mazin is kind of a genius. 

 

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On 6/7/2019 at 11:57 AM, CayceG said:

I haven't read the New Yorker piece, but I have read things about Dyatlov. 

 

He was a guy baked into the system and was ambitious to ascend and become a "boss" like Fomin. He was very competent and knew how the operate the reactor, but he was a shrewd manager and did indeed berate people. However, after serving a prison sentence for his role in the disaster, he spoke out against blaming the personnel (Akimov, Toptunov, etc) for their actions, because of the flaws in the reactor design. So he was a complicated figure that got some form of redemption for the operators in the end, but did wind up dying of radiation related illness. So I'd say that's some penance. 

 

Additionally, Legasov is not portrayed this way in episodes 1-4, but he was a party apparatchik in real life. That comes out a bit when the KGB guy gets him in the room in ep. 5 and recounts the things he's done on his way up the ladder. But knowing what I know about him, he was a party guy through and through. He just broke out beyond that through the course of the disaster. But of course, portraying it that way would prove difficult, narratively. 

 

Should I bother? Because I don't care to read rehashed criticisms of "oh, well, Khomyuk wasn't a real person, so they got it wrong" or "Ignatienka already had kids when she was pregnant at Hospital No. 6."

 

 

 

Yeah, I found that article after having only watched up to episode 3 and just finished the last two tonight. I was surprised when I got to the scene with the KGB guy after the trial where the KGB guy basically directly calls out Legasov for being a party man and working the system his whole life. The piece made it sound like there was nothing like that in there. I think it was definitely a strategic decision to hold that into the very end, and I'm sure the real Legasov differed a lot from how he was presented in episodes 1-4, but... I dunno, that's kinda fine.

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On 6/7/2019 at 1:39 PM, TwinIon said:

 

I imagine this will be a fun watch:

 

I just read the New Yorker piece on what Chernobyl got horribly wrong, and I feel like the overall criticism is horribly vague, or directed at dramatic devices that I find easy to forgive. Yes, it's probably true that a scientist like Legasov would have known how the system works, and there would have been fewer direct threats or direct challenges, but I can forgive those artificial moments for the drama they produce. The amalgam character of Khomyuk exists to show all the alternative viewpoints and outside expertise that various scientists brought to the disaster. She's a convenient narrative device, if not a very accurate one.

 

The big lie, according to the New Yorker, is that Dyatlov was not particularly responsible for what happened. Instead it was simply a matter of "a system digging its own grave." My reading of the series is that's exactly what Dyatlov represents, but the New Yorker doesn't address any specifics as to what happened to cause the disaster. From the little outside reading I've done on this subject, I feel like Craig Mazin did his best to accurately represent exactly what happened, as far as we can tell. Maybe we should have spent more time with Dyatlov before the disaster to better understand all the incentives and deficiencies in the system that explain his actions that night, but it certainly seems like the mechanics of the story were correct.

The creator literally talks about the need to take some dramatic licence in the podcast. Specifically on many of these exact issues.

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I rewatched the first three episodes last night. That's a fucking marathon of heavy. 

 

I'm going to watch 4 and 5 again throughout the week. This show is so incredible. But there are liberties taken with facts. 

 

 

But in general, I think it's extremely forgivable because either that's what they thought at the time, or the portrayal is to make a point for characterization. 

But I super don't want to get into filmmaking criticisms here. It's too poignant for the discussion to descend into those things. 

 

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4 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

I think Craig Mazin should stop doing comedies (given that's all he's done until Chernobyl and they have all been uniformly terrible). Stick to drama/serious work Craig Mazin, he's clearly much better at it than comedy. 

it could also be that this was an actual passion project, and most of those trash movies were probably just "work".

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31 minutes ago, TheGreatGamble said:

it could also be that this was an actual passion project, and most of those trash movies were probably just "work".

 

I'm sure that it was but he literally made only bad movies until Chernobyl, even if a project isn't your passion project if you have the skill he shows here in Chernobyl your previous work should at least accidentally be better than his resume indicates. The clear difference is tone - everything else he's done before have all been clear-cut comedies (barring The Huntsman: Winter's War, which he co-wrote, which you could argue is an unintentional comedy). :p 

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Going to a birthday party this weekend for a senior reactor operator who works at Ginna nuclear power plant which is the oldest nuclear power plant in operation in the US, the party will be full of people that work at the plant. Can't wait to hear how many questions I overhear about Chernobyl.

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28 minutes ago, elbobo said:

Going to a birthday party this weekend for a senior reactor operator who works at Ginna nuclear power plant which is the oldest nuclear power plant in operation in the US, the party will be full of people that work at the plant. Can't wait to hear how many questions I overhear about Chernobyl.

 

If you're asked how you like the cake, respond with "not great, not terrible."

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  • 3 weeks later...

The President of Ukraine has awarded the country's highest honor--Hero of Ukraine--to the three divers at Chernobyl that opened the gates. 

 

https://www.president.gov.ua/documents/4682019-27817

 

Quote

For heroism and selfless actions found during the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident, I resolve:

 

To Assign the Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the "Golden Star"

ANANENKO Oleksiy Mikhailovich - Senior Mechanical Engineer of the reactor shop of the state-owned specialized enterprise "Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant" in 1983 - 1989

BESPALOV Valery Alekseevich - senior engineer of the turbine shop of the state-owned specialized enterprise "Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant" in 1986

To Assign the Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the "Golden Star" (posthumously)

Boranov Boris Alexandrovich - Chief of the Chornobyl NPP State Specialized Enterprise, 1976-2005.

 

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  • 2 months later...
On 6/8/2019 at 12:51 PM, CayceG said:

Someone cut together episodes 5 and 1 and placed them in chronological order, if anyone is interested in seeing the disaster play out that way. 

 

 

I love how the show started as a horror show, then turned into basically a disaster movie, and then a war story, and finally a murder mystery. Craig Mazin is kind of a genius. 

 

 

Thank you for this! Just shared with my friend too.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 10 months later...

Finally got around to seeing this, and it did not disappoint.  The monster aspect was played up so well I felt the urge to shield my face in that first episode.

 

What intrigued me more was the social-political dynamics of the movie.  How the pretense to continue the farce of "Russian" superiority lead.  While I don't doubt half of Americans will watch this and conclude that communism is a failure, the blindness of nationality and the greed of human endeavor are seeds of downfall for our capitalistic society.   The same bureaucracy exhibited by the CPSU plagues our own democracy.

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On 8/2/2020 at 10:47 PM, cusideabelincoln said:

Finally got around to seeing this, and it did not disappoint.  The monster aspect was played up so well I felt the urge to shield my face in that first episode.

 

What intrigued me more was the social-political dynamics of the movie.  How the pretense to continue the farce of "Russian" superiority lead.  While I don't doubt half of Americans will watch this and conclude that communism is a failure, the blindness of nationality and the greed of human endeavor are seeds of downfall for our capitalistic society.   The same bureaucracy exhibited by the CPSU plagues our own democracy.

 

I think the main difference is:

USSR

  • Government workers had to pretend the USSR was the best
  • People knew it sucked

 

USA 

  • Government workers know it sucks
  • People are dumb enough to believe it is the best
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